The Adelaide City Council has reportedly kicked off their weekly greasing of Rundle Mall’s pavers using the world’s most slippery detergent in a bid to ensure the surface retains its crown as responsible for the most slips and near misses in South Australia.
Sudson Latheringham from the City Council’s division of Urban Slip’n’Slides told Adelaide Mail that the scheme that provides Adelaideans with the nation’s most slippery pavers has its roots in a council-led prank from the 1990s.
“Initially we had a little extra budget to spend on pavers so we thought we’d track some with absolutely no traction for Rundle Mall,” Latheringham says while chuckling to himself.
“The idea was to set up a few hidden cameras around the Mall, get some good footage of people going arse-up, then send the footage into Australia’s Funniest Home Videos and split the $100,000 Grand Prize thanks to Minties. But we could never get the videos on the show. I reckon it’s because Michael Harbison insisted that he do his own ‘funny voiceovers’ on the videos. We tried telling him they have their own guy, but he was deadset. I think it was his dream if he wasn’t Lord Mayor”.
Although the Council never fully pulled off their prank, they did up the stakes years later on Hindley Street when they installed even more slippery pavers on the road. Several cars careened off the road as a result of the short-lived prank.
Not to mention the slippery road paving near Victoria Square similarly slowing traffic to 30kms.